USA > New Jersey > The early Germans of New Jersey : their history, churches, and genealogies. > Part 7
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7I
REV. JOHN ALBERT WEYGAND
longer. Yet he could understand so well that he said he called upon God day and night for a happy death, which his wife con- firmed. I prayed with him and sang a few verses of the song, " Lord teach me mine end to know." On leaving I pointed him to the bloody wounds of Jesus, saying, that with the bloody righteousness of Jesus he would overcome if he held on to it in faith and trust. That night he died.
CHAPTER IX.
REV. LUDOLPH HEINRICH SCHRENCK.
EYGAND was succeeded in 1753 by Lu- DOLPH HEINRICH SCHRENCK and his min- istry also was attended with difficulties and disturbance. The " Mountain" peo- ple, as the Pluckamin congregation was called, had refused to give up their sep- arate church and unite with the other three congregations, in 1749, and build one central church which should be not more than 10 miles from any of the people of the congregations. So it was now agreed that Pluckamin should have service one-fourth of the time and pay one-fourth of the salary.
This REV. SCHRENCK was the fourth regular pastor. He staid three years, for two of which he was in the hottest kind of hot water. He was sensitive, proud and irritable in the extreme. He was anxious to marry a rich wife, and yet was very ready to suspect every man, who had a marriageable daughter and who showed him any attention, of having designs upon him.
Also at one time, when two of the most influential elders called upon him upon some matter, and in the course of the conversation mentioned that some of his congregation thought he preached the law too severely and did not present often
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REV. LUDOLPH HEINRICH SCHRENCK
enough the persuasiveness of the gospel, he became very angry. But he bade these visitors good bye with every show of friendliness, kissing them both in true German fashion be- fore they left. On the next Sabbath before a large congrega- tion, after he had preached an excellent sermon, instead of making the closing prayer, he ordered the church doors to be locked, that no one might leave the house. He then began to abuse and revile the two men, who had been to see him the day before, with such violence that he foamed at the mouth. Every one was in consternation and wanted to know who were in- tended and who had been abusing the pastor. When it was found out who the elders were, who had so unconsciously give such great offence, all the elders went to the parsonage to reconcile matters, but the quarrel only become more bitter. The next Sabbath everybody flocked from far and near to hear what the minister would have to say for it had been given out that he was to plead his cause again in public. This he did as the account says "with fire and flame" and ended by calling out the names of these elders and excommunieating them from the church. One of these two men was Baltus Pickle, who had been the builder of the church, had paid 50 pounds towards the organ and 25 for the church. Moreover the church was still in debt to him for materials and work in building. This indebt- edness was included in the 1,000 pounds which Baltus Pickle afterwards left by will to the New Germantown Church at his death in 1760.
It is interesting to notice that this church had an organ as early as 1754. Schrenck continued to struggle on for two years until he was finally compelled to leave in the year 1756. He treated Mr. Muhlenberg afterwards most shamefully and has left a very unfavorable memory behind him. He finally left for Ireland where for a time he served a Lutheran congregation.
CHAPTER X.
THE MUHLENBERGS.
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG-PAUL DANIEL BRYZELIUS- J. PETER G. MUHLENBERG-G. HENRY E. MUHLENBERG.
N HISTORY of the German settlers in this part of New Jersey, would be com- plete without an account of the two pioneer missionaries, MUHLENBERG and SCHLATTER. For while they were not the first preachers to the Germans here and in Pennsylvania, yet they were in fact the real founders respectively of Lutheranism and the German Reformed Church in this part of the United States. They both possessed unusual organizing ability as well as a very high degree of piety and learning. They both, moreover, had to endure considerable persecution for righteousness sake. Also to both alike belonged the honor of bringing together the few scattered churches of their faith into a conference or synod. It is interesting to know that they knew one another and lived together in mutual confidence and esteem. Their paths often crossed each other but no friction ever arose between them. We shall give a short account of these remarkable men.
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG
was born in the city of Einbeck in the Electoral Principality of Hanover, September 6th, 1711. His parents were Nicholaus Melchior Muhlenberg, a member of the council of the above
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THE MUHLENBERGS
mentioned place, and Anna Maria Kleinshmid, daughter of a retired military officer.
He went to school from his seventh to his twelfth year and was confirmed at twelve years of age. His father died soon after and he was compelled to set to work to help support the family. This he continued to do more or less until he was twenty-one. He occasionally found time to learn to play on the organ. At twenty-one he resumed his studies especially of Latin and Greek. Providence opened a way for him to gratify his ardent desire for a course of study in one of the universi- ties. The different villages and towns of Germany contributed funds to the support of the recently established university of Gottingen, and were entitled on this account to send a student to the university for free tuition. Muhlenberg happened to be the only one of his native place, who was of the requisite age and had a desire to go to the University, and thus re- ceived the appointment. While at Gottingen he yielded for a time to evil associations but not for a long period, for he soon met with a change of heart. And he and some other students engaged in the work of teaching the ignorant and neglected. In May, 1738, he taught a primary school at Halle. But he rose rapidly in public esteem until he became instructor in Theology, Hebrew and Greek.
In August, 1730, he was ordained as a deacon, or assistant minister in the church at Grosshennersdorf, in upper Silesia.
In 1741 he became, at the request of Dr. Francke, of Halle, a missionary to the scattered Lutheran congregations in Penn- sylvania. On his journey to the colony of Pennsylvania, he went first to Holland and thence to England. On the 13th of June, 1742, he set sail at Gravesend for Charleston, South Car- olina, which place he reached September 22d. During the voy- age he suffered very much both in body and mind, from a scarcity of water and fresh provisions, and the roughness of the crew. A similarly painful experience was connected with his journey from Charleston to Philadelphia, where he arrived November 25th, 1742.
At the very beginning of his work Father Muhlenberg, as he might well be called, had to encounter opposition.
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EARLY GERMANS OF NEW JERSEY
" PERILS BY MINE OWN COUNTRYMEN."
Count Zinzendorf had preceded him and was claiming to be a Lutheran, while really teaching doctrines opposed to the orthodox faith. On this account Muhlenberg was compelled to withhold any official recognition from one whose course was not entirely straightforward. Thus the very earliest efforts of the missionaries from Halle were directed to the healing of schism and the correction of errors. And yet nearly all of these men showed excellent judgment in avoiding, as far as possible, all controversial subjects and in depending principally upon the power of the truth itself in its singleness and sim- plicity. The difficulties of the task committed to these early preachers arose largely from the necessity of satisfying, on the one hand, the rigid conservatism of the authorities in the mother country, where persecution on account of the truth, had made orthodoxy a matter of life and death, and, on the other, of providing preachers or teachers for the numerous congrega- tions scattered throughout New Jersey and Pennsylvania, who were pleading with heart-rending earnestness and persistency for almost any kind of a pastor, who could at least prevent them and their children from relapsing into utter barbarism.
"PERILS BY LAND."
Many were the weary days and nights spent by these heroic men hastening from one scattered hamlet to another, through almost pathless forests and across frozen streams, sometimes with fevered pulse and aching limbs, in order to keep appoint- ments, made weeks beforehand, with people who would come twenty and thirty miles to hear once more the word of life. Often and often we read in the reports of sermons interrupted with the sobs of the hearers and not so much through grief as rejoicing at the sound of the gospel, which they had almost despaired of ever hearing again. In these absences from home wives and children would sometimes be put to sore straits, and the husband and father's heart would have an added load of anxiety to carry on their account.
" PERILS BY WATER."
The following extracts from Muhlenberg's reports will illus-
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THE MUHLENBERGS
trate what has just been said : " Now, as I had to hold divine service in Providence on the 26th of November, 1749, and had as yet to ride twenty miles to my residence, I was obliged to set out from Perkasie on the 25th of November, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. They gave me a guide. Night soon overtook us, and therefore we could not ride rapidly, and only came to the Perkiomen creek at 11 o'clock at night, which is still two miles away from my house. To our great surprise, we per- ceived that the stream since my departure was frozen over hard, and covered with ice. My companion only had a small horse, which in addition was unshod, consequently I had to go before and break the ice. I did this at the peril of my life and remained in the saddle, notwithstanding the leaping and rear- ing of my horse, and let my companion follow in the footsteps and holes which my horse had broken. In breaking the ice my horse had always to raise himself up in front, and at the same time break a hole with the fore-feet, and keep the piece of ice on the bottom until he leaped after with the hind feet, and then went still further forward. I got over safely, but on account of the dark night, I missed the outlet on the other side ; and came with my companion to a bank, which was high and al- most perpendicular. Back I would not again venture, for the broken holes were not easily found again in the darkness. We took off the saddles, and by the aid of some bushes clambered up on land, and resolved to make an attempt with our horses also. We tied the girths to the bridle of the small horse, and compelled him to stand on his hind feet, so that he could reach on the bank with his fore feet. We pulled, and the horse helped himself bravely onward with the hind feet, and safely reached the shore, as he was young and nimble. But when we would do the same with my horse, that was old and stiff, the bridle broke, and the poor beast fell backward with all his weight into the ice, so that he lay on his back in the water with his legs up, and locked in by the ice, and must thus have been drowned. I gave up the poor beast, because I saw no possibility to help him. My companion, however, would not rest but in great anxiety he cut a lever with a small knife, sprang down with it, and made a great opening in the ice, helped the horse so that
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EARLY GERMANS OF NEW JERSEY
he laid on one side, and at length worked himself on his feet again. Thereupon the horse anew broke through again, and would go back on the other side, but on account of weakness stuck fast in the middle of the stream in the ice, so that we could help him no more in any manner. We laid our saddles and baggage on the other horse and wished to go the rest of way home on foot, lost ourselves in the dark thickets, and walked around for about half an hour in a circle, "intil the stars once appeared in the heavens, and showed us where we were, when we got home about 3 o'clock."
The horse was rescued the next morning nearly dead and Muhlenberg had to meet his appointments with a serious illness creeping upon him as a result of his long exposure. The year before, 1748, he had been absent on one of his long tours, the return from which is thus described : "When I reached home on the 5th of May, I found my wife and two children down very sick with the measles. The wife was not properly cared for in my absence, and the wrong medicine was administered by which the measles were checked. This resulted in a suffo- cating catarrhal affection on the next day. It had proceeded so far that she had lost her speech and had assumed a brown color." Mrs. Muhlenberg finally recovered, though her life had been despaired of. She was the daughter of Conrad Weiser, who was prominent in the early history of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania as an interpreter and agent in connec- tion with the Indian tribes.
HIS GIFT OF TONGUES.
And yet Dr. Muhlenberg was a man of very superior educa- tion. He had a good knowledge of Greek and Hebrew, and spoke the English, German, Latin, Holland and Swedish lan- guages. He was given the degree of Doctor of Divinity by the University of Pennsylvania in 1784.
He preached in New York on one Sabbath in German in the morning, in Dutch in the afternoon and in English in the even- ing. He was possessed of a fine tenor voice and could play on the organ. His disposition was gentle and conciliatory and he seemed incapable of resenting an injury or even remembering
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THE MUHLENBERGS
a wrong. His tact and patience were often put severely to the test and never seemed to fail. He combined breadth of mind with the most methodical and conscientious regard for the details of routine duty.
It is principally the reports of Dr. Muhlenberg's work that make up the Hallesche Nachrichten. While the pastor of sev- eral churches in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, in name, he was really an itinerant bishop. He was a very earnest patriot during the Revolutionary war. He died Oct. 7th, 1887. His funeral was attended by a vast multitude. Three of his sons were sent to Germany to go through a course of theological training. One of these was Henry Ernst Muhlenberg, D. D., a man of scien- tific attainments, a skillful botanist as well as a most successful pastor and preacher. Dr. Muhlenberg's accounts of his work reveal him to have been a man of humble and fervent piety, a searching preacher and yet very gentle and considerate in his dealings with the weak and wayward. He seemed to find it his meat and drink to preach the truth. His consecration and zeal were unbounded. When once he had promised to visit a distant congregation, no weakness or weariness, no difficulty or danger could prevent him from keeping his appointment. In short there is no name on the annals of any evangelical church which represents a more exalted type of christian life and labor.
PASTOR IN NEW JERSEY.
The stone church at New Germantown, N. J., was erected at his advice, and is a monument of his practical judgment and of his powerful influence in this section. He was in fact the pastor of the Raritan churches from 1757 to 1775.
Father Muhlenberg's relation to the Raritan region began at the time of the trouble with Wolff in 1745 and continued for 30 years. For seventeen years he was the formally chosen rector while others served regularly in his place as his assistants. The gratitude awakened in the hearts of these people by the deliv- erance from utter ruin which he had secured for them by his patience, tact and decision, grew more and more warm and trustful, the more they learned to know him. It was therefore a most joyful time with them when in the year 1758 while on a
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EARLY GERMANS OF NEW JERSEY
visit to them, he consented to come the next year and spend twelve months. He felt he could not do less, though his own people of Providence had a prior claim upon him, since the Raritan congregations had built a new and more commodious parsonage expressly for his use in four months after he had objected to the smallness of the old one.
The long expected month of June, 1759, came round and Muhlenberg set out on Monday the eleventh from Providence in a wagon with his wife and four children. The three others were left in Pennsylvania. Six wagons had been sent to the Delaware river, twenty-five miles from New Germantown, to meet him. When he arrived some elders and their wives were present to welcome him and his family and to offer them a well prepared repast. Mrs. Muhlenberg returned on a visit to Prov- idence, September 19th, and Muhlenberg on the 26th. They both returned on October 19th. He also visited Hackensack (Nov. 27th to Dec. 4th) with Wm. Graaf, a student of theology, afterwards his successor in the Raritan churches.
In June, 15th, 1760, Muhlenberg set out for Pennsylvania, accompanied by his son Peter and Jacob Van Buskirk, of Hack- ensack, a student of theology under his care. He returned again the next year, March 26th, and ministered to the Raritan churches in spiritual things. One year of such service as this man of apostolic spirit and power would render could not fail to produce lasting results.
It is interesting to note here the presence of Muhlenberg at the dedication of the Bedminster church [in Pluckamin] in 1758 at which time he preached both in German and English to a large concourse of people. He speaks of the great rejoicing at New Germantown, Bedminster and other places at the news received October 18th, 1759, of the capture of Quebec by the English.
According to the representations made to Muhlenberg, to induce him to spend a year with the Raritan people, by a dele- gation which visited for that purpose in the year 1757, he had a second time saved these people from falling into ruin. In 1761 he sent
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THE MUHLENBERGS
PAUL DANIEL BRYZELIUS
(or Prizelius) to them to act as assistant pastor. At first his services were acceptable and in 1765 he was given a regular call as assistant pastor, but he soon afterwards lost favor with the people and the next year, 1766, he left his wife and family in the parsonage, because his salary had not been fully paid, and set sail for London to receive Episcopal ordination. He then went to Nova Scotia, where, however, he was unsuccessful in his ministry. Bryzelius was born in Hæradshammer in the diocese of Linkoeping, Sweden, and came to Philadelphia in 1742 with Count Zinzendorf. He was converted from Mora- vianisin under the influence of Dr. Wrangel and was received into the Lutheran ministerium Oct. 29th, 1760.
The next year after the departure of Bryzelius, Muhlenberg visited the congregations April 23d, 1767, and in May, 1768, sent his oldest son,
JOHN PETER GABRIEL MUHLENBERG,
to minister to the Raritan churches. He remained until March, 1772. He probably occupied the parsonage as he married 16th November, 1770, Anna Barbara Meyer. Peter had returned from Germany in 1766 after a three year's sojourn there, dur- ing which time he had served as a clerk in a drug store and a soldier in the British army. For two years, however, he had studied theology with Dr. Wrangel and was licensed the 20th of June, 1769. From New Jersey he went to Woodstock, Va., after re- ceiving Episcopal ordination in London. His ardent tempera- ment could not resist the revolutionary fever and he became a Colonel in the American army and afterwards attained the rank of Major-General. His place as assistant pastor of the Raritan churches, was taken by his younger brother,
GOTTHILF HEINRICH ERNST MUHLENBERG,
who had returned from Germany in 1770, was ordained the same year, on Oct. 25th, when he was not quite 17 years of age. He remained in New Jersey until he received a call to be the assistant of his father in Philadelphia on the 4th of April, 1774.
CHAPTER XI.
NEW GERMANTOWN AND GERMAN VALLEY.
EV. ALFRED HILLER, D. D., delivered the following sermon in German Valley on the 2d of July, 1876 : When the first church building was erected at German Valley, it is hard to tell, as the church historian in those days it seems was not abroad. There is a tradition, however, which has come down to us from the oldest inhabitant, that the first building for divine service was
A LOG CHURCH,
built many years ago, and that it stood on or near the site of the old stone church, the walls of which are still standing. This church, like the old stone church, was doubtless a union church, built probably as early as 1747 [1761] by the Lutherans and German Reformed. The Lutheran Church in the Valley was for many years associated with the church at New Germantown, where the pastor resided and preached at regular intervals, as well as at German Valley and Spruce Ran, so that for a long time the church was only an outpost, with no pastor residing on the territory, but supplied by different brethren from abroad. In those days it was the fashion for the members of this church frequently to attend church at New Germantown, nine miles from here, often going on foot, and barefooted at that, the ladies carrying their shoes in their hands until they came within sight of the church.
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NEW GERMANTOWN AND GERMAN VALLEY
The fathers and mothers of those days were not "carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease."
[To avoid repetition part of the discourse is here omitted as the facts stated have already been given.]
In the year 1774, during the ministry of Henry Muhlenberg, Jr., the Lutheran and German Reformed congregations of Ger- man Valley determined to build a new church, to be the com- mon property of the two congregations. This is the
OLD STONE CHURCH.
Before building, an article of agreement was drawn up and signed by the pastors and officers of each congregation.
This building, now 100 years old, is still standing, and with proper care, the walls look as if they would stand another century. You are all familiar with the old church building. There used to be a heavy gallery on one side and across each end ; the entrance on one side, under the gallery, and on the opposite side was the pulpit-one of the Jack-in-the-pulpit style, with sounding board suspended above. There is no chimney on this church, for the fathers here had a novel way of making themselves comfortable on cold Sundays. In the centre of the church a space about eight feet square was made with a ground floor, and on this square a great mass of char- coal was burned, the congregation getting for their share at least the smell of fire, while the preacher from his exalted posi- tion, nearly over the burning mass, received a double portion of gas to mix with his sermon.
The next minister called to this field after the building of the old stone church was the
REV. WILLIAM GRAAF,
who was settled here as pastor in July, 1775. He came here from Bergen county and labored in this field until his death in 1808.
During his ministry a new church was built, and a congre- gation was organized at Spruce Run. Mr. Graaf was a native of the town of Liningen, in the southwestern part of Germany.
He pursued and finished his theological education in Giessen, in Hesse-Darmstadt. After his arrival in America he was or-
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EARLY GERMANS OF NEW JERSEY
dained by Rev. Dr. Muhlenberg as pastor of Hackensack and Ramapo, in Bergen county, N. J. Mr. Graaf continued to labor here for thirty-three years-a pastorate longer by far than any who have as yet succeeded him. He is described as " a learned and pious minister of the gospel, faithful in the discharge of his official duties ; but when age and bodily infirmities forbade their continuance, the congregation cheerfully supported him until the time of his death." Mr. Graaf, who was pastor here one hundred years ago, was succeeded by
REV. ERNEST LEWIS HAZELIUS, D. D.,
a native of Germany, who had for eight years been a classical teacher in the gymnasium at Nazareth, Pa. Dr. Hazelius took charge of the churches here in the month of August, 1809. His pastorate continued until near the close of the year 1815, when he accepted a call to the newly established Hartwick Seminary as the first Professor of Theology. This was the only pastoral charge that Dr. Hazelius ever served, the remainder of his life from the time he left this field having been devoted to teaching.
The name of Dr. Hazelius to-day stands high in the history of the church in this country, he having occupied the honored positions of Professor of Theology in the Theological Semin- aries at Hartwick, Gettysburg and Lexington, S. C.
THE RECORDS OF THE CHURCH,
now in our possession, begin with the ministry of Dr. Hazelius ; and of his ministry what is principally recorded is the num- ber of baptisms, which were transcribed from the records at New Germantown by Dr. Pohlman.
The following is the first entry by Dr. Hazelius : "On the Ist day of May, in the year of Our Lord, 1815, a number of the Lutheran congregation in the Dutch Valley met at their meeting house in Washington township, Morris county, for the purpose of electing seven persons as trustees of said church agreeable to an act of the Legislature of the State of New Jersey, entitled 'An act to incorporate trustees of religious societies,' passed 13th June, 1799, when the following gentle- men were chosen by a majority of votes of the members and
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